Menswear brand Bonobos wanted a high-profile spot for its second Chicago location, which opened at 900 North Michigan Shops last week.

Although the company's Lincoln Park store brings in the most sales of any location outside New York City, CEO Andy Dunn estimates about 70 percent of the company's target market in Chicago isn't yet familiar with the brand.

"We hope it will help us get to know a lot of new people," Dunn said.

The Chicago store will be the retailer's 21st "guideshop," where customers can try on samples of products that can be shipped to their homes. The guideshops don't have an inventory of items like a traditional retail store. Bonobos plans to have 30 locations by the end of the year.

When the company launched in 2007, it was aggressively online-only.

"I really thought stores were going away at that time," Dunn said.

He changed his mind after the company, working on developing a line of better-fitting dress shirts, had customers come in to try on samples. They wanted to try on other products, too, and started "buying like crazy," said Dunn.

By letting customers try out products but not stocking apparel for sale, Bonobos can cut costs with smaller stores, offer a wider selection of styles and fits, and focus on customer service rather than inventory management, Dunn said.

He declined to comment on the company's growth or revenues but said the guideshops are profitable, drawing customers who tend to spend a little more and buy more tailored items, like suits, dress shirts and wool pants, than online-only shoppers, who gravitate to casual wear.

The vast majority of customers don't seem to mind not having instant access to their purchases, he said. The company estimates its free shipping will get packages to the Chicago area in two days, and the rest of Illinois in three. In the rare cases where customers really do need it now, guideshop employees will try to help out, he said.

But other retailers are competing on speed, with some malls and stores like Macy's and American Apparel — not to mention Amazon — offering same-day or one-hour delivery in certain markets.

Bonobos orders are shipped from the company's Massachusetts warehouse.

Dunn said he can't see Bonobos shifting from guideshops to a more traditional retail model but has toyed with the idea of having a small number of larger stores that could stock apparel and serve as fulfillment centers to offer similarly quick delivery.

"If you had 100 guideshops and 10 with stock that have the ability to be fulfillment centers to fill that same-day need? That kind of fascinates me," he said.